Museum of Old and New Art curator Kirsha Kaechele is seeking legal advice after being ordered by the Tasmania Civil and Administrative Tribunal to allow men entry into her artwork the Ladies Lounge.

As a result of the tribunal’s decision, announced on Tuesday, Mona has 28 days to either close the lounge, allow men entry or change the work in some way. Kaechele, the wife of Mona founder David Walsh, said she was considering her options, including an appeal.

“Admitting men does not appeal to me,” Kaechele said. “Appealing the decision is more appealing. They want me to reform the artwork. I could consider this, but I fear it may be beyond reform. I need the full 28-day period to absorb the decision and compose myself, and my response.

“I will be seeking counsel. As the hugely influential gender theorist Judith Butler has long argued, gender is a performative construct. To which I’d add: so is the legal system.”

On Tuesday, Mona lost the anti-discrimination case brought against it by NSW man Jason Lau, who visited the museum on April 1 last year, paid a $35 entrance fee, and was denied access to the Ladies Lounge.

Mona does not dispute that Lau was discriminated against, with its counsel arguing that is the point of the artwork. The Ladies Lounge is a dimly lit, opulent, green-hued space, featuring plush silk curtains, a phallus-shaped green velvet lounge, artworks from Picasso and Sidney Nolan, and cabinets filled with precious jewels including the gold tiara Kaechele wore when she wed Walsh in 2014.

At a hearing on March 19, Mona’s counsel, Catherine Scott, sought an exemption to the Anti-Discrimination Act on the grounds that the Ladies Lounge provided equal opportunity for women, who had faced historical discrimination and exclusion from many public spaces.

Kaechele told the hearing: “We need the Ladies Lounge: a peaceful space woman can retreat to; a haven in which to think clearly, and relish the pure company of women without the overwhelming supremacy of men.”